BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Another Mets Need: Financial Wizard

By JOE SEXTON

Published: November 2, 1993

The holes in the Mets, obvious and enormous on the field, extend to their front office. The club has operated since June without a chief business executive.

"It'll be filled within a month," Fred Wilpon, one of the owners of the Mets, said yesterday.

According to one senior official in the organization, the Mets have narrowed their search to a handful of candidates. Two of them are Jack Diller and Larry Lucchino. Diller served as president of the Madison Square Garden Sports Group from 1990-91. Lucchino resigned last week as president and chief executive officer of the Baltimore Orioles.

Diller did not return telephone calls yesterday. Lucchino said through a spokesman that he would have no public comment on his plans.

"The job description is to serve as counterpart to Joe McIlvaine," Wilpon said, mentioning the club's general manager. "He won't be Joe McIlvaine's boss; he'll be his colleague. He or she will manage the business side of the Mets. It's a big side." Resignation Created Need

The vacancy opened when Al Harazin resigned in June after he was asked to relinquish his baseball responsibilities and focus on the business aspects of the Mets. Harazin had been attempting to fill both roles as Frank Cashen's successor.

"It's too complex, too much to do for the baseball general manager to handle," Wilpon said of the business operation. "It's a different discipline."

The different discipline will be needed for what Wilpon hopes will be a major civic and commercial undertaking in Flushing. He has drawn up plans for the construction of an ambitious complex to replace Shea Stadium. It could include a stadium with a retractable roof, hotels, a convention center and perhaps a permanent site for the World's Fair.

Lucchino, who is credited with the success of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, is in great demand and may be in line to take charge of the construction of the Miami-area complex that could become the home of the National League's Florida Marlins and the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers.

Diller, a lawyer, served briefly as president of the Knicks and Rangers before being dismissed in a nasty power struggle in 1991. INSIDE PITCH

HOWARD JOHNSON didn't want to talk yesterday. He was rushing to depart for a vacation. He was nervous about what he could and could not say. The message he managed, though, wasn't encouraging for those who want to see the third baseman at Shea Stadium again next season: "I can say it doesn't look good for me and the Mets." Johnson, who has filed for free agency, evidently is not impressed by the offer the Mets have made, a deal for one year that was loaded with incentives and that amounted to a huge cut in guaranteed money. The Cincinnati Reds are one club that has made public its interest in signing Johnson. "There will be plenty of time to talk about reasons and what happened when it's all over and done with," said Johnson, who has experienced repeated injuries and a marked decline in production over the last two seasons after he led the National League in homers and runs batted in in 1991.